Tandy Hills Natural Area

Tips to remember when visiting

Tandy Hills Natural Area is a protected natural area containing hundreds of native plant and animal species. Certain activities are not allowed to ensure the protection of this rare native landscape. Below are some guidelines to ensure all photographers and visitors have an enjoyable experience and leave Tandy Hills intact for future generations.

Stay on trails. Going off trails is destructive to the prairie; most especially wildflowers. (If wildflowers are trampled, they cannot be pollinated and thus produce seed. This will reduce next year’s wildflowers.)
- If wildflowers are trampled, they cannot be pollinated and thus produce seed. This will reduce next year's wildflowers.
- Trampling wildflowers destroys pollinators' food source and birds' seed food.
- The Friends of Tandy Hills and Park & Recreation Department have spent a lot of money and time building sustainable trails. Going off trail creates unsustainable trails and erosion.
- Braided unofficial trails creates confusion and a less enjoyable user experience.
All plants, animals and natural objects are protected.
Do not collect or harass plants, animals or natural objects. All are protected.
Foot traffic only, no bicycles, or motorized vehicles.
No horseback riding.
Leash and clean up after your dog.
Discharge of firearms is prohibited.
Alcohol and drug consumption prohibited.
Camping is prohibited.
Dispose of trash properly. No littering or dumping.
Natural area opened from dawn to dusk.
Leave no trace of your visit.

IMPORTANT

A permit is required for doing business in all parks and properties owned by the City of Fort Worth.

This includes selling food or drinks, hosting classes (fitness programs, youth sports, and/or other types of programming), professional photography or staging other activities where goods and services are sold.

City of Fort Worth Code 24-6 states "It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or offer to sell any goods, wares, services or merchandise within any parkways, medians, parks, playgrounds, swimming pools or other recreation areas without permission of the Park & Recreation Director."

For more information and permitting, please contact the Office of Contract Management at 817/392-5718 or parkreservations@fortworthtexas.gov

Dedication

1960

Size

105.25 acres

Additional amenities

Benches
Drinking Fountain
Playground
Trails

Fun facts & history

Tandy Hills encompasses a complex of contiguous parkland (Tandy Hills Park, Tandy Hills Natural Area, Stratford Park, Stratford Natural Area) that totals nearly 160 acres. In 1960, both Tandy Hills Park and Natural Area were dedicated as parkland. In the 1980's, Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge Director, Wayne Clark, conducted an environmental assessment, which brought to light the unique and important prairie ecosystem found within the park.

Tandy Hills is a pocket of remnant Fort Worth Prairie that stretches from the Brazos River to the Red River along a narrow strip (10 – 30 miles wide) of limestone bedrock and marl soils. This highly threatened prairie ecosystem has been fragmented and there are only a few remaining examples of what the rolling prairie looked like in predevelopment times. One example is at Tandy Hills, only 5 miles from downtown Fort Worth. Within the park, visitors can enjoy an amazing diversity of prairie wildflowers; some of which exist nowhere else in the world outside of the Fort Worth Prairie. Volunteers have documented nearly 1,500 species here via iNaturalist.

There’s no need to drive to the Texas Hill Country when you can hike the trails of Tandy Hills and see the same breathtaking wildflowers. Rolling hills, steep valleys, intermittent streams, seeps, limestone bedrock outcroppings, and the diversity of flora in the middle of the city make Tandy Hills a unique park.

Over the years, the City of Fort Worth Park & Recreation Department has partnered with Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area to develop a Master Plan; which serves as the guiding document for managing this unique prairie. Volunteers and staff have spent years clearing brush and invasive privet for prairie restoration, litter pick-up, trail building, organizing special events, conducting scientific research and Bioblitzes to improve this natural area for all to enjoy.

In June 2020, the City of Fort Worth purchased 50+ acres of land adjacent to Tandy Hills. Broadcast Hill is the first purchase under the new Open Space Conservation Program Although not parkland, this open space is contiguous to Tandy Hills and will eventually be connected by a natural-surface trails.

As of July 1, 2020, Broadcast Hill is closed to ALL vehicles including, cars, trucks, 4-wheelers, bicycles and motorcycles. Walk-in visitors are welcome.

View numerous animal, plant and insect species observed at Tandy Hill Natural Area and make some of your own observations through iNaturalist. See link under the "Related information" Section.